Helpdesk/Service Desk Roles- Pushing Forward Career

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi,

I just wanted to start a thread to get some advice really. its not on any specific qualifications more about progressing in the IT industry.

So I've been working in the IT field for a number of years, Low pay to average paid most of the time, all my doing by the way.

First job
- BT- PartTime- 700 per month( paid very well part time)

2nd
1st line Tech Support- 50 calls per day, little access on system, no direct AD access. Typical Call centre, KPI monitors etc. Salary 13.5k

Current role:
1st/2nd line. AD access, account creation, remote access via Landesk- Kaseya, C$ software, command prompt, 2nd line rights to an extent, no server access, exchange access. roughly 30 calls per day. Salary: 16k.

So I have purchased network + book via comptia and also have the Microsoft 70-680 Book which i was planning on doing the 685 as well but I know studying for this has changed now regarding getting the overall qualification.

Anyway, now with the background covered, I'm looking to expand my knowledge and want to start earning more and move into a higher paid job.

My options are

2nd line It Support, server access etc- 20-30k
Networking Support- unsure salary wise.

I'm having a hard time trying to decide where to move my career forward. I believe I'm good at my job, and can do my job easily.

2nd line at my current place is more of where I would like to be, however there isnt any openings currently and due to the sector I work in, there is a pay freeze for the next few years.

With the recent interest in cloud computing, VMWARE etc, I'm a little unsure of how to progress.

We are going to be, come end of November supporting users on Windows 7 as our 2nd line team are imaging new machines with a windows 7 build, So my skills will improve with this.

So with salary and career advancement my focal point, just seeing if anyone can advise.

Am I best studying MS or going down the comptia route.

Now, I'm a firm believer on doing what interests you, I'm going to be learning Windows 7 on the job, so certification via this route seems logical however long term, where should I be looking at?

thanks again.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

You don't say how long you have been in your current role or where you are based. If Windows/OS installation/configuration is an area of interest then I would go down the 2nd line route. It would be good for you to get some Windows server, Group Policy etc experience under your belt and also some Exchange, networking, virtualisation exposure will do wonders for you.

The Windows 7 roll out will be good for your CV too. If you decide to take 2nd line route then take the MS certification and N+ if networking route. But that's not to say N+ won't be useful if you are looking for a 2nd line role.

Personally I think early in your career, it's good to have dabbled as many different types of technologies as you can (2nd, 3rd line etc will generally give you that), so you can decide for yourself which area you would like to focus on.

 

I noticed in your sig, that you've got CCENT as a work in progress. Are you still studying for this, or are you contemplating about doing Network+ instead?

 

With regards to networking vs server support: This should be governed by which you enjoy doing more & the direction you want your career to go. However at this stage of your career I'd say you want to be doing both - Make sure you are up to scratch on the Win7/desktop support stuff & also basic networking. Then take a look at the MCSE course. Then after that you might want to look at a more advanced networking course/exchange/vmware etc. Taking the exams if you can is a definite bonus in terms of CV.

Pluralsight do a monthly subscription to a huge array of training video courses including the Trainsignal ones which are some of the best in my opinion.

It can be frustrating as its a bit of a chicken & egg thing as far as getting experience & better job goes. I started in a small IT team of 5 people & would definitely recommend doing this as the roles are a lot more blurred due to lack of staff & you'd get a lot of exposure to higher level calls. Also more access to systems. Outsourced companies can be good for giving you experience in a wide range of products/different setups so I'd recommend that as well.

Ultimately the ideal is if you can work for a place where you are not restricted to repeating set tasks that you already know how to do. The best way to learn is by having a new problem & needing to research/play until its fixed.

Anyway just my thoughts, good luck with everything..

 

Alex101
ROCDAMIKE
reverb

above cheers, for you replies

Alex- good response mate, yeah I thought that as well, I like to be familiar with the desktop and certain technologies first, I did however have a good level of interest in networking, but want to gain more windows/server side first.

ROCDAMIKE- cheers for reply, yeah I was studying for CCNET, doing well and enjoyed it. with the rollout at work I thought it would be useful to try and look over windows. then this is when it was making me a little unsure as I wanted to try and see what the best path was.

Reverb- yeah, I think i'm thinking long term, I didnt want to go down the wrong path. I think i'll just see what happens and apply for different roles.